Toronto Japanese Film Festival streams award-winning dramas, documentaries, and more across Canada, June 5 to 27

Celebrating its 10th anniversary, the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre event is the largest showcase of its kind in the country

SPONSORED POST BY Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre

True Mothers was Japan’s Oscars entry.

Canada’s largest showcase of contemporary Japanese films is going nation-wide this year, available to stream on the West Coast from June 5 to June 27.

The Toronto Japanese Film Festival, presented by the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre, has gathered an impressive array, ranging from award-winning dramas to whimsical comedies and ravishing spectacles. Anime and documentary are also on the roster.

Celebrating its 10th anniversary, the fest has grown over the past decade to become one of the most important surveys of Japanese cinema on the planet.

Amid the international, North American, and Canadian premieres look for Hiroki Kadokawa’s foodie-friendly historical drama Mio’s Cookbook, Keisuke Yoshida’s all-star boxing epic Blue, Katsuhide Motoki’s period dramedy Angry Rice Wives, and Masayuki Suo’s love letter to Japan’s silent film era, Talking the Pictures. 

There’s also a rich offering of work by women directors, including Akiko Ohku’s Hold Me Back, which won the Audience Choice Award at the Tokyo International Film Festival; Miwa Nishikawa’s Under the Open Sky, featuring a career-best performance by Koji Yakusho, and Naomi Kawase’s powerful True Mothers, which was Japan’s candidate for the Academy Awards. Elsewhere, Hitomi Kuroki’s spectacular historical fantasy The Devil Wears Ju-Ni Hitoe Kimono is a must for lovers of the traditional silk garment.

Photographer Yoshihiko Ueda also shows his visual signature in the debut feature in the gorgeously shot A Garden of the Camellias, while Michihito Fuji’s The Brightest Roof in the Universe takes a whimsical comedic look at the tale of a troubled 14-year-old girl visited by a magical stranger. 

Meanwhile, director Kiyoshi Kurosawa tale of intrigue, Wife of a Spy earned him the Silver Lion at the 2020 Venice Film Festival. And the anime-live-concert hybrid movie Lip X Lip Film X Live features the popular “vocaloid” virtual popstars Lip x Lip. 

A strong roster of documentaries includes a deep dive into the fascinating world of sumo wrestling (Sumodo) and a look at the groundbreaking 1965 Paralympic Games (Tokyo Paralympics: Festival of Love and Glory).

There’s much more; tickets and all-access passes are on sale now. Find the full lineup here.